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Lauren Child

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Posts posted by Lauren Child

  1. A couple of photos from the Technical Museum in Zagreb. It's more of a museum of engineering, but it has a couple of military exhibits.

     

    Below is

    - a 1939 (If I remember right) Opel Blitz fire engine.

    - a 1935 Fiat Ansaldo L35 Italian tank.

    - a 1943 CB-20 Italian Submarine

    - A float with a telephone that I think must have floated above it, allowing communication with the surface.

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  2. Some highlights of the inside of the museum.

     

    The museum has a large display of medeivel swords, armour and sheilds. This is darkended, and I hadn't been able to read the (Polish) sign saying no flash photography. I got a couple of photos before it was explained to me.

     

    There is also a significant display of what I would call napoleonic era uniforms and militaria, but I didnt get many photos of this.

     

    There is a large WW2 display. Shown here are some Polish resistance artifacts (inluding intelligence on the V1 and V2 rockets, and what I assume is a Polish workshop for making Sten guns), and an interesting uniform that appears to be Allied, but uses the german style helmets.

     

    If you are planning on visiting, I can highly recommend it, but wait a couple of months as the signage is just being converted to show English as well. This should illuminate some truly unique exhibits to those of us who don't speak/read Polish.

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  3. It seems fate smiled on me. Having found out I was going to miss War and Peace as work had scheduled me to be out of the country, I thought I was going to miss out. The day before heading home however, I found out that the hotel I'd been booked into was 10 minutes walk away from the Polish Army Museum.

     

    The museum charts the history of the Polish military from swords and suits of armour all the way to both sides of WW2.

     

    Here are some photos from my visit.

     

     

    Note : The "Kubus" is an armoured car made by locals in August 1944 for the Warsaw Uprising. It transported 8-12 men with two machine guns. Underneath it's a Chevrolet truck 157. It was deployed along with a captured APC to sieze the University of Warsaw.

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  4. I spoke to some of the volunteers there a year or so ago. The removal of the MT wing is regarded by them as a big mistake. While selling off the land/buildings put money in the pot, the vehicles were a big crowd puller.

     

    I think its under new management now, but unfortunately the buildings are now in other hands, so there's not the space to bring it back.

  5. That looks like the IWM Duxford spitfire mock-up. It was damaged last year when it was caught by high winds and rolled over on the airfield. As such it's had lots of practice at embedding itself in the ground. The last time I saw it, it was in pieces in one of the small shelters, but I had heard it had been fixed up.

  6. This has just appered on the website -

     

    STOP PRESS.....STOP PRESS.......STOP PRESS......

     

     

     

    DISPLAY AUTHORITY GRANTED TO XH558 CREW

     

     

     

    XH558 To Carry Out First Public Display At RAF Waddington International Airshow 5th/6th July 2008

     

  7. Rule 26 There is no queue for the ladies loo. There is a long queue for the gents. All is right with the world.

     

    Rule 27 When a nervous gent with a look of sheer concentration dashes across to the (empty) ladies portaloo, do not enter afterwards.

     

    :D

  8. My Fox is registered as a Private HGV... cheaper tax than PLG :cool2:

     

     

     

    I though the exemptions were set out in the Road Traffic Act. & no one could challenge that....

     

     

    You may find that not everyone counts as competent to interpret the legislation.

     

    With some of the safety legislation, you can query and appeal, but you can't interpret something as being within the rules or not unless you are recognised as qualified to do so (or you can end up in hot water).

     

    I hit this issue with electrical safety, and while I can read a passage in the rulebook, I'm not allowed to say something is or isn't compliant because I'm not qualified to do so. I can however say "my understanding is...", or "that's confusing, how do you interpret x?" when I think somebody's made a mistake and needs to rethink.

     

    From what I've read in this thread, it sounds like MOT's work the same way. It's very frustrating for everyone.

  9. I think I'm right in saying that the four crayon like tubes on each side of the wings are solid fuel rockets to get it airborne and up to speed, at which point the jet engines would be able to sustain flight.

     

    A chap I met on a training course had been working on one of the last batteries to be decommissioned. A cold, wet, place where it was "difficult to keep the blue touch-paper dry".

  10. A WC51 weighs 2.6 tons WC52 2.8 tons + its design carrying capacity 3/4ton makes both in the 3 to 3.5 ton gross weight so they need a class 7 MOT, the test requirement is the same as a class 4 but the testing station is equiped with a larger ramp to cater for the larger vehicle

     

     

     

    Isn't this where the difference between a long ton (British Imperial), short ton (American Imperial), and tonne (Metric) comes into play?

     

    I thought the DVLA rules were in Metric tonnes, but the nomenclature of "3/4 ton truck" was in American Imperial short tons.

     

    I'm no expert though, so maybe I've got it wrong. Theres a wikipedia entry on the different forms of ton/tonne/tun here -

     

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ton

  11. You have to wonder what all of that metal was used for, but I'm betting the value gained from it's re-use were far greater than the value of a museum piece these days.

     

    It's sad to say from a restoration point of view, but at the time that much metal was probably worth a lot more in terms of getting civilian life running again.

  12. This is for "Aviation Spirit" -it should be embossed on it, unless it's a rare variant:

     

     

    I don't think it does have Aviation Spirit stamped onto it. It's been a long time though, so I'll have to look it out when I head back to my dad's place.

     

    My brother was mad on steam trains so we went to a lot of transport and steam fairs when I was younger. I picked it up intending to paint it up nicely, but I bit off a bit more than I could chew, and didnt quite have the oomph for paint stripping in those days. It's sat in the shed/garage ever since.

     

    Funnily enough I was pondering doing something with it just the other day. Now I just have to find it....

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